Six
by Sylvia Viridian
Summary: A look at the outcasts who became heroes, at a time in each life when individual personality has just been formed.


A look at the Tales of Symphonia crew, age six. Because everybody loves a chibi. I don't own any of them. Some parts of their backstories are made-up, some are pieced together from canon sources. Only one backstory is completely made up by me, and I'll bet you can spot it. (Hint: It's the character you don't recognize (unless you've been reading my fic Tin Soldiers, in which case you might, but oh well).)

(Glossary, courtesy of Raine Sage: PKW – Pre-Kharlan War era; dates descend to 0 KW, which is the start of the war.

KW – Kharlan War era, beginning with 0 KW, which is the start of the war.

BR – Before Reunification, the four-thousand-year era between the end of the Kharlan War and the reunification of the worlds. Dates descend to 0 PR (Post-Reunion), at the time of reunification.)

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10 PKW: A little boy was the only son of a noble family. His mother and father were rich, and owned a lot of land, and they loved him very much. It was his birthday, and they were throwing him a fancy party. He looked out the window, and saw a little boy with blue hair and wide green eyes watching, so he asked his nursemaid if the boy could join them. She told him that he didn't want that boy here, that he was a half-elf slave, and not fit for human company, especially for a noble such as himself. The boy's parents agreed, and so he nodded and went along with it. But he wondered, because the other boy hadn't seemed mean, just lonely and maybe hungry.

10 PKW: A little slave boy served a noble household. One day while he was running errands, he looked into the house through a window and saw a little boy with reddish hair and eyes sitting at a fancy table, even more fancy than it usually was. Later, he asked one of the slave women about it, and she said that it was the master's son's birthday, that the nobles celebrated every year on the day of one's birth. The boy thought about that all night, wondering when his own birthday was. Not that it mattered; no one would ever throw a party for a slave.

6 PKW: A little girl lived in Heimdall with her parents. She was happy there with her family, and was always kind and gentle, raised to believe in the sanctity of all life. But she knew the elves didn't want her there, or her mother, because of their human blood. Still, the elves weren't doing anything to stop them, and her parents didn't want her to worry about it. So she spent her days singing and playing in the forest, content to love the world and everyone in it.

6 KW: A little boy wandered the world beside his older sister and their friends. He'd never known his parents; they'd been killed when he was just a baby. As long as he could remember, he and his sister had been going to different places, always looking for a way to stop the war that was going on, and telling people about how everyone had the same hearts and should be treated the same way. His sister was the most amazing person in the world, he knew, because she was never mean. Even their friends were mean sometimes, and the boy knew that he couldn't help being mean himself on occasion, but his sister, while she might get angry sometimes, was always nice. Everyone loved her, except for the people who were always mean, of course. It was only right that everyone should love her; she was the best thing in the world.

Circa 300 BR: A little boy took care of his sisters, protecting them from their father's wrath. His mother was drunk again, and no help at all; and the human townsfolk hated them, for being half-elves. Even their own father hated them, because they made the townsfolk hate him. He let them live in his house, Martel only knew why, and the boy wasn't about to look that gift horse in the mouth, but he treated them like dirt. The boy was given ridiculous amounts of housework to do, but he did it all, and endured his father's scathing words with his amber eyes turned toward the ground submissively, in order to keep the attention on himself and away from his younger sisters. He promised himself that he would protect them until each of them could get away and support themselves…and only then would he himself leave. But once he got away…he would never, never come back.

27 BR: A little boy in Altamira had recently started lessons. His parents were busy, but loving, and showered praise upon him when he showed them what he'd learned. His mother promised that she'd bake cookies with him tomorrow, once she was done with a social event – she had to at least pretend to enjoy court life – although his father told them regretfully that he needed to spend the day working with the company, as some problems had come up. It was always like that, he rarely got to see both of his parents at once because they were always so busy, but he knew that they loved him, and he wanted to always make them proud. He decided that he would grow up to be just as nice as his mommy, and just as good at running the business as his daddy, so that they would always be able to be proud of having such a good little son.

22 BR: A little girl in Ozette looked after her sister while their father went to work. Ever since their mother had died, she had had to watch her little sister during the days. Her sister was only four, and could get into lots of trouble if no one took care of her. So they stayed home while their father worked long hours in the forest, in order to make money for them to live on. It had been better when their mother was alive; she would take some of the wood her husband cut, and carve it into charms to sell. She'd even begun to teach her oldest daughter some of that skill. But she was gone, now, and it was up to the two little girls to try and make their father not be sad anymore.

17 BR: A little girl was growing up in Heimdall, with her elven mother and her human father. She knew that she was something wrong, something bad, because even though her parents promised her that they loved her and always would, they had to keep her hidden away so that her presence wouldn't offend the other villagers. They whispered at night about how if humans found out she was so smart, they would try to take her away and put her somewhere bad, making her work for them. And she knew that she was a burden on them, even if they loved her. So she promised herself that she would get strong, strong enough to take care of everyone, so that she wouldn't have to be hurting those who loved her with every day that she lived.

16 BR: A little boy sat in his room in Meltokio and listened to his parents shouting. They didn't do that very much anymore, but sometimes it still happened, and he knew to stay out of the way when it did, because if his mommy saw him while she was angry, she would shout at him too, or worse, she might start crying. He could hear what they were saying; his daddy had made another woman who wasn't Mommy pregnant. He knew that wasn't right, but it didn't surprise him; his parents didn't love each other, just like they didn't love him. No one loved him. Some of the kids tried to play with him, but it was only because he was special, important, the Chosen. They didn't really want to be friends. So he sat in his room, hearing his parents argue. It didn't make him cry anymore. He was too big, now, to cry over things that he couldn't do anything about.

13 BR: A little girl in Mizuho played with her new friend. He was kind of weird-looking, but her grandpa said that Summon Spirits were really powerful, and their bodies didn't look like what they really were. She'd gotten her friend when her grandpa took her to Meltokio, to a big building with lots of science stuff in it, to meet with some half-elves. She'd been there once before, when they told her that she had a special power, the power to call Summon Spirits. She thought that sounded cool, but some of the other people in the village had thought it was weird, and a bunch of the kids didn't want to be her friends anymore. But now, she had the most wonderful friend in the world, and so life was happy again.

11 BR: A boy was growing up in Iselia. His father loved him, and his huge dog helped take care of him, and if some of the villagers thought he was kind of weird, he thought they were a bit weird, too. He had started school not long ago, but found it really boring. Still, he had plenty of free time, and even if the kids didn't all like him, they'd let him play their games. And life was good. No one ever got taken away to the ranch anymore, because the mayor made a deal with the Desians. And maybe the Desians weren't good people to make deals with, but as long as no one was getting taken away, everything was okay, right?

10 BR: A little girl was being raised in Iselia. She was always sweet and cheerful, always kind to everyone, and they were kind back as a result. But everyone always kept a bit of distance between them, and recently, she had found out why. She had always been told that she was special, the child of angels, and now she knew what that meant. Someday, she would be called upon to give her life for everyone in the world. It was to be a great honor, they said, and so she knew it was right, and when the time came, she would do her duty. It was the best way to make everyone in the whole world happy, after all.

6 BR: A little boy wandered Sylvarant alongside his older sister. They never stayed anywhere long, and he knew it was in case someone found out what they were. Because they were half-elves, and humans didn't like half-elves, and most half-elves didn't like humans, either. But that was wrong, his sister said, and he tried to believe it. Even when the innkeepers made them stay out in the rain sometimes, he tried to believe that they weren't really bad. His sister said they were scared, but he thought that was silly. Even if his sister was a little scary sometimes, she would never really hurt anyone. She'd taken to telling people they were elves, lately, since it was obvious they weren't human. But he had to be really careful not to tell anybody, because the humans would be really mad if they found out. He hoped they could find somewhere to stay for good, soon.

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If enough people ask me to, I'll post a second chapter with an epilogue for each of these. For those who haven't figured some of them out, the chibis are, in order: Kratos, Yuan, Martel, Mithos, Botta, Regal, Presea, Raine, Zelos, Sheena, Lloyd, Colette, Genis. 

I will also take requests to do this for other characters, either canon ones or, if you like, some of the Renegades from Tin Soldiers.


End file.
